Efforts to bring about an African renewal have crystallised into the New Partnership for Africa's Development. This programme is about restoring the dignity, respect, pride and ubuntu of the African people, writes Frank Chikane.
It is now ten years since President Thabo Mbeki made the seminal speech, "I am an African". From a South African perspective, this speech is considered as the trigger for the new movement of the African Renaissance that has given birth to the African Union (AU) development programme the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
At a continental level, there is a multiplicity of perspectives relating to the origins of the concept and vision of the 'African Renaissance' and on how this led to the development of NEPAD. As one would expect, academics would track the concept of the 'Renaissance' to its original use in relation to the great revival of art and learning in Europe during the 14th to 16th centuries. Some re-appropriate the concept for themselves and give it a new meaning to inspire a rebirth or 'revival' of the African continent after years of slavery, racism, colonisation, neo-colonialism, underdevelopment, dictatorship and military rule. Others simply use this historical approach to critique the concept, in a static way, as a European concept that has no relevance to the African experience.
Another approach is an Africanist historical perspective. It tracks earlier related concepts used by African leaders and scholars. Examples are the concept of 'Regeneration' used in the 19th century by leaders like James 'Africanus' Horton, James Johnson, Edward Blyden and Pixley ka Isaka Seme.
Other concepts used were the 'African Personality' (Edward Blyden); 'Renascent Africa' (Nnamdi Azikiwe); 'African self-discovery and self affirmation' (LÄopold SÄdar Senghor); 'Consciencism' and 'African Personality' (Nkwame Nkrumah). Other proponents of similar ideas were Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Sekou Toure and Kenneth Kaunda. One theme that ran through the perspectives of the post-colonial African leaders is that of 'African Socialism'. The starting point of this perspective is their belief in a classless, communalist, pre-colonial Africa and thus wanted to create a 'new' Africa based on African socialist principles (Maloka). This 'new' Africa project collapsed by the end of the 1960s following the overthrow of Nkrumah and Azikiwe.
The 1970s and 1980s were characterised by the Cold War and the development of more radical perspectives about Africa. The writings of Franz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral informed most activists. Modernisation theory gave way to dependency theory; class replaced race and culture and Pan-Africanism gave way to internationalism (Maloka).
Some would consider the 1991 Kampala Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (CSSDCA) as having kick-started the current movement. In recent times, a conference to discuss the matter of the African Renaissance with the theme, "An African Renaissance at the Dawn of the Third Millennium", was held in Dakar, Senegal at the Cheikh Anta Diop University. The conference was held in February-March 1996, a few months before President Mbeki's "I am an African" speech. In an article entitled "African Renaissance Compromised at the Dawn of the Third Millennium" (CODESRIA Bulletin, No. 1, 1998), Andre Mbata B Mangu congratulates the "South African Vice-President Thabo Mbeki... for adopting 'the African Renaissance' as a principal theme of his country's diplomacy", having themselves discussed the topic at Dakar earlier.
Whatever its origins, whatever its history, Africans have reappropriated and redefined the concept for themselves giving it a new meaning of a vision and programme to renew the African continent - a rebirth of Africa!
GENESIS OF SOUTH AFRICA'S VISION
The ANC's vision of the African Renaissance and the level of consciousness among its members in relation to this vision are a direct product of the nature and duration of our struggle for liberation and its unprecedented international dimension. Its first generation of leadership at the turn of the last century was part of the Pan-Africanist discourse at a continental and international level. Most of this leadership had travelled internationally and some studied abroad, giving them an opportunity to interact with other African leaders on the continent and in the diaspora.
Pixley ka Isaka Seme's seminal text on "The Regeneration of Africa", published a century ago (1906), demonstrates the level of engagement and preoccupation with the challenge of the renewal of the African continent a century later. He says in this text:
"The brighter day is rising upon Africa.
Already I see her chains dissolved,
Her desert plain red with harvest,
Her Abyssinia and her Zululand
The seats of science and religion,
Reflecting the glory of the rising sun
From the spires of their churches and universities.
Her Congo and Gambia whitened with commerce,
Her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business
And all her sons employed in advancing the victories of Greater peace and more abiding than the spoils of war.
From the four corners of the earth, Africa's sons, Who have been proven through fire and sword, Are marching to the future's golden door Bearing records of deeds and valour done."
Seme ends this text with a poetic piece. "O Africa!" he says: "Like some great century plant that shall bloom In ages hence we watch thee; in our dreams See in they swamps the Prospero of our stream; Thy doors unlocked, where knowledge in your womb Hath lain innumerable years I gloom.
Then shall though, walking with that morning glean, Shine as thy sister lands with equal beam."
His definition of the term 'regeneration' was the 'entrance into a new life, embracing the diverse phases of a higher, complex existence'. While recognising the diversity of the peoples of Africa he asserted that the African people possess a "common fundamental sentiment which is everywhere manifest, crystallising itself into one common controlling idea". He talks of the agencies of "a social, economic and religious advance" that "tell of a new spirit which, acting as a leavening ferment, shall raise the anxious and aspiring mass to the level of their ancient glory". Africa, he says, refuses to "camp forever on the borders of the industrial world". In this regard, Seme continues to say that Africa sent its children to some of the best schools abroad, who, on their return, like arrows, shall drive darkness from the land.
As early as 1897, Enoch Sontonga composed the famous hymn, "Nkosi sikelel' iAfrica", which became the national anthem of many Southern African countries following their independence. As a South African, Sontonga could have asked God to bless South Africa. But instead, he prays for the blessing of Africa, indicating the levels of consciousness about South Africa as being part of the fortunes - positive or negative - of the African continent. The anthem ends by saying "Woza Moya oyiNgcwele. Usikelele, Thina lusapho lwayo".
Once they had attained their independence, most of Africa risked itself and made sacrifices for the freedom of South Africa from white minority rule.
The Liberation Committee of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) was seized with this struggle until all white minority regimes were eliminated in the Southern African region. The struggle for liberation in South Africa was also internationalised by the ANC's external mission, through the anti-apartheid movement (and related organisations) and other means. The ANC's alliance with the Communist Party also contributed in the internationalisation of the struggle against the apartheid regime. This international strategy was one of the four pillars of struggle of the liberation movement.
The ANC, therefore, did not arrive at this consciousness about the need for the renewal of the African continent by chance. It did so as part of the legacy of many years of struggle. In a discussion paper on "Foreign Policy in a new democratic South Africa" dated October 1993, and as part of the preparations for taking over government after the 1994 democratic elections, the ANC makes a number of pertinent statements. It says that:
It is not surprising that once South Africa was free, the first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, could say at the Tunis Summit of the OAU in June 1995: "Finally, at this Summit meeting,...we shall remove from our agenda the consideration of the question of apartheid South Africa.
"Where South Africa appears on the agenda, let it be because we want to discuss what its contribution shall be to the making of the new Africa Renaissance. Let it be because we want to discuss what materials it will supply for the rebuilding of the African city of Carthage.
"Africa cries out for a new birth, Carthage awaits the restoration of its glory.
"If freedom was the crown which the fighters of liberation sought to place on the head of mother Africa, let the upliftment, the happiness, prosperity and comfort of her children be the jewel of the crown.
"We know as a matter of fact that we have it in ourselves as Africans to change all this. We must, in action, assert our will to do so. We must, in action, say that there is no obstacle big enough to stop us from bringing about a new African Renaissance.
Mbeki's seminal speech, "I am an African", left no doubt about the consciousness of South Africa, about its Africanness and about its commitment to work for the rebirth of the continent. Interestingly, Seme started his speech in 1906 in a similar way, by saying, "I am an African, and I set my pride in my race over against a hostile public opinion".
The African Renaissance vision
It was Mbeki's speech that ultimately inspired the conceptualisation of the vision of the African Renaissance. Following this speech, a team of senior advisors in the Deputy President's Office then decided to 'download' the vision from the Deputy President (and thereby that of the ANC) and translate it into an operational plan to achieve this objective. This involved discussions within the ANC together with its alliance partners, consultations within government and consultations with and between civil society entities in South Africa.
By 1997, an elaborate plan was developed to engage in consultative processes with the leadership of the African continent, civil society and other strategic international partners who would be critical for a programme of the renewal of Africa. These involved 'party-to-party' discussions, discussions with and between civil society, discussions between civil society and government, and government to government discussions at all levels. Both President Mandela and Deputy President Mbeki used all available opportunities, like bilateral meetings (state, official and working visits in and out of South Africa); multilateral meetings (SADC, OAU, NAM, South-South meetings, the Commonwealth, UN and other regional economic formations and institutions); and any encounter with civil society and media opportunities, between 1997-2001 to share and exchange views about this vision. This led to the development of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) with a secretariat based in South Africa.
The discussions within the ANC about the vision of the African Renaissance culminated in an extensive analytical Political Report of the President to the 1997 50th National Conference in Mafikeng on the vision of the African Renaissance. Following this report, the conference adopted a resolution that said:
This resolution informed the government's strategies and the development of the content of the African Renaissance to achieve the objective of the renewal of the African continent. An analysis of the history of the African continent from its early days to the period of the Cold War convinces us that a confluence of factors on the continent and globally had made it possible for the 21st century to be declared the African century. In pursuance of this, the ANC's 1999 election manifesto committed the ruling party to work for "a better Africa and a better world".
Once the post-election government was constituted in 1999, the newly-elected President, Thabo Mbeki, led a team of ministers, their directors-general and other senior officials to discuss and develop the theoretical framework and strategy to give content to the vision of the African Renaissance as mandated by the organisation. After months of intense work and research, a document entitled "The Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme" was produced and used as a basis for consultations and discussions with other African leaders.
Consultations with and between civil society entities in South Africa resulted in the 'African Renaissance Conference' in September 1998. All sectors (workers, academia, business, religious, community and other non-governmental organisations) were invited to participate in the conference. The outcomes of this conference, in turn, led to the launch of the South African Chapter of the African Renaissance (SACAR) one year later.
Again, all sectors of our society were invited to participate in SACAR.
Consultative workshops were also held at provincial and local level resulting in provincial and local forms of African Renaissance organisations and programmes.
Earlier, in 1998, a civil society institute, called the Africa Renaissance Institute (ARI) was launched in Botswana to organise civil society within the continent. The first Interim Executive Board of the Institute consisted of Ambassador Falilou Kane of Senegal, Mwahafar Ndilula of Namibia, Patrick Nkanza of Zambia, Bax Nomvete of South Africa, Kapembe Nsingo of Zambia and Washington Okumu of Kenya. In a brochure produced after this meeting, the institute is presented as "a product of two years of consultations, formulation and organisational work out of which evolved several pragmatic operational strategies aimed at establishing the most effective way of mobilising and networking Africa's human resources, intellectual wealth and enterprise for an African Renaissance in the third millennium". It was designed to serve as a vehicle for "Africa's thinkers, researchers, and development workers in all walks of life, across barriers of language, religion, and geographic borders, who are motivated by the quest for Africa's survival, recovery, and sustainable development".
Unfortunately, the development of the ARI was slow given the social and political conditions on the ground in many African countries and the state of civil society organisations. As a result, by March 2002, only fifteen countries had established national chapters of the ARI and steering committees were established in six other countries. In Liberia, for instance, the steering committee was disbanded because of the conflict in the country. The South African Chapter of the African Renaissance (SACAR) was part of this family of ARI Chapters.
THE ORIGINS OF NEPAD
The same can be said about the origins of NEPAD. Many would trace it to the September 1999 Extra-Ordinary Summit of the OAU held in Sirte, Libya.
Senegal could argue that NEPAD developed from its own OMEGA Plan that was merged with the Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) drafted from South Africa in 2001. Others would say that it started with the decision of the 2000 OAU Summit in Togo which mandated Presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika (of Algeria), Olusegun Obasanjo (of Nigeria) and Thabo Mbeki to coordinate their presentation at the G8 meeting in Okinawa, Tokyo. Some would say that it became a programme of the OAU when it was adopted at the Summit in Lusaka in 2001, firstly as the New African Initiative (NAI) and later called NEPAD.
These different views do not suggest that there are disagreements or contradictions. It is simply an indication of different perspectives and views from different vantage points. These events though are interrelated, and together, they present a complete picture of the origins of NEPAD.
From a South African perspective, NEPAD is seen within the context of the development of the vision of the African Renaissance; the formation of the Africa Renaissance Institute (ARI) and its South African chapter, the South African Chapter on the African Renaissance (SACAR); the discourse and decisions within the ANC leading to African Renaissance policy positions; and the development of the MAP concept document that formed the base from which the New African Initiative (NAI) and NEPAD concept documents were developed. This perspective sees the decision in Lome, Togo, as part of the strategy to introduce the vision of the African Renaissance within the courts of the OAU.
At Lome, Mbeki made the proposal that the then chairpersons of the OAU (President Bouteflika), the South-South Summit (President Obasanjo) and NAM (President Mbeki) who were individually mandated to make representations to the 2000 G8 meeting on various inter-related matters of concern for developing countries, should coordinate and integrate their positions for submission to the G8. Accordingly, an opportunity presented itself for the three leaders to develop a continent-wide comprehensive developmental programme to renew the African continent. An Algeria-Nigeria-South Africa Task Team was constituted to develop a working document in this regard for longer term engagement within the African continent. It is within this context that South Africa prepared and tabled MAP as its contribution to this development.
Between the 2000 Summit in Togo and the one in Lusaka in 2001 two further interventions were made. One was by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade who presented the 'OMEGA' for integration with 'MAP'. Another was the 'Compact for African Renewal Initiative by KY Amoako, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Following a meeting in March 2001, it was agreed that "there was no philosophical or policy differences between the positions in MAP and the thinking reflected in the Compact document" and that the 'Compact for African Recovery' be considered as an input into the MAP process. The final document presented to the OAU Summit in June 2001 was called 'A New African Initiative' (NAI), later changed to the 'New Partnership for Africa's Development' (NEPAD).
The 2002 Stellenbosch Conference of the ANC welcomed the launch of the AU and the adoption of NEPAD as a significant development in the advancement of Africa's cause. It further noted that this created the possibility of fundamental change in Africa's political and economic landscape. The conference resolved that the "ANC should continue to give its fullest support, promote and defend unreservedly NEPAD and the African Union (AU)".
Further, the conference resolved that the ANC should work to consolidate the participation and support of the Tripartite Alliance behind NEPAD, and that an outreach programme be undertaken to popularise NEPAD.
The question often asked is, what is the difference between NEPAD and the earlier efforts of Africa during the 1970s and 1990s? Adebayo Adedeji, one of the leading African development activists, says that "while African leaders can be faulted in many ways, they have made a series of heroic efforts since the early 1970s to craft their own indigenous development paradigms". The first attempt was the "Declaration on Cooperation, Development and Economic Independence" adopted at the 1973 OAU Summit. The July 1979 Summit adopted the historical Monrovia Declaration which laid the basis for the Lagos Plan of Action adopted at a Special Economic Summit in Nigeria the following year. This African developmental plan for the 1980s was inspired by the conviction that the same determination which virtually rid the continent of political domination would produce the same results for the economic liberation of the continent.
After five years of unsuccessful implementation of the Lagos Plan an attempt was made to revive it through the "African Priority Programme for Economic Recovery" (APPER). This led to the UN adopting the "Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development, 1986-90" (UN-PAAERD), a compact between African leaders and the international community. Again, this programme did not produce the desired results because of many factors, including structural adjustment measures of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank's national programmes which were not always directly related to the goals and targets of the Programme of Action. This programme was followed by the "African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment for Socio-economic Transformation (AAF-SAP), 1989; the African Charter for Popular Participation for Development, 1990; and the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa (UN-NADAF) in 1991.
There are many factors which caused most of these programmes to fail. Among these were the negative impact of the Cold War on developing countries; dictatorships and military regimes; lack of capacity and, in some instances, failure of leadership; lack of support from the international community and external prescriptions for Africans; and an unequal system of economic relations which impoverished developing countries further, particularly African countries.
NEPAD: ADVANCING AFRICAN RENEWAL
There is no gainsaying the fact that Africa has born the brunt of the worst of humanity. Africa was the worst victim of five centuries of slavery, about three centuries of colonisation and neo-colonial systems; years of dictatorships and military regimes; and the ravages of about fifty years of the Cold War. This history left Africa deeply impoverished; robbed of its identity, its culture, its wealth, its natural resources and its human capacity. Africa's natural developmental path was rudely interrupted and its history distorted. By the end of the last century, Africa was characterised by deep levels of poverty, wars, intra- and interstate conflicts, displaced persons and refugees. This resulted in the racist forms of self-fulfilling prophecy of African pessimism.
The challenge for Africa at the end of the 20th century was to reverse this negative legacy and enable Africans to regain their humanity and their rightful place in the world. This is what the new movement of the African Renaissance and the NEPAD programme are about.
There are a number of factors which created conducive conditions for a vision and programme like NEPAD. The first was the end of the Cold War which was responsible for many of the divisions on the continent, as well as intra and inter-state conflicts with proxy wars of the powerful which were fought on the grounds of the powerless and the poor. The second was the end of the apartheid system which was the last bastion of white minority rule. This released the energies of South Africans and those of the continent to be able to focus on the renewal of the African continent.
There are two other events which prepared the ground for the NEPAD vision and Programme. The first earlier landmark declaration was the 1990 African Charter for Popular Participation in Development which also helped to complete the work of the African Charter on Peoples' and Human Rights. The Charter for Popular Participation recognises the role of the people in development. The second is the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (The Abuja Treaty) of 1991. The Treaty went beyond the OAU Charter by recognising the "promotion and protection of human and peoples' rights" and "accountability, economic justice and popular participation in development". It laid the foundation for the Constitutive Act of the African Union adopted in 2000 and the launch of NEPAD in 2001.
NEPAD is a vision and a framework for change in the way in which Africa sees itself, feels and thinks about itself. It is a vision about how Africa wants to change the pessimistic view about itself. It is about restoring its dignity, respect, pride and ubuntu. NEPAD is about the people and for the people. It is participatory; it makes people the agents of change, and allows them to determine their own destiny.
NEPAD is about gender equality and empowering women. It has a Gender Unit which ensures that all NEPAD priority programmes are being designed and implemented in a manner that integrates gender mainstreaming. A gender mainstreaming strategy is in place and a NEPAD Gender Task Force has been established to act as a reference group for gender mainstreaming.
Unlike in the past, NEPAD is a vision and a programme which has been independently initiated and developed by Africans themselves as opposed to one dictated from outside of the continent. As a result it is owned by Africans.
NEPAD is about leadership. It is about African leaders taking responsibility for their countries, their continent and becoming accountable to their people. It is about leadership that is not self-serving with no regard for the conditions of life of its people. It is about leaders that are not just proxies for others, primed to serve their interests other than those of their people. It is led by an Implementation Committee of Heads of State and Governments (HSGIC) who report directly to the AU Summit. It has its own unique African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to ensure best practice and guarantee support from its peers.
NEPAD has changed the nature of the relationship between the donor and the recipient, the developed and the developing countries. It has contributed to a partnership of mutual trust, respect and responsibility. This 'new' type of 'partnership' is expressed in the form of the Africa Partnership Forum and the standing interaction with the G8 member states since 2000. Another paradigm shift is the reprioritisation of agriculture, infrastructure, science and technology and regional economic integration with development partners. This means that the narrow approach of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) has been replaced by a comprehensive and holistic approach to development.
NEPAD is about partnership within and between various sectors of our societies. It is about partnerships between governments and their people. It is about partnerships between countries, within and between regions, within the continent and between continents. It is a South-South and South-North partnership.
In short, NEPAD's revolutionary agenda and its intervention have, for the first time, given back to the African peoples the right to determine a development path for themselves.
The major success story of NEPAD is that it constitutes a new, comprehensive, holistic policy framework for African development that is supported by detailed indicative plans for all key politico-socio-economic sectors. Through intensive dialogue and strong leadership, the international community, including the private sector, has been persuaded to pledge its support for the implementation of the programme.
There are eight priority areas for NEPAD: political, economic and corporate governance; agriculture; infrastructure, education; health; science and technology; market access and tourism; and environment. Part Two of this paper will focus on these priority areas. It will critically assess progress made, identify the challenges the programme has faced and propose ways in which these could be tackled.
* Frank Chikane is a member of the ANC National Executive Committee and Director-General in the Presidency. The second part of this article will be published in the next edition of Umrabulo.
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